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Sunday, January 22, 2012

A story that appeared in Thursday's edition of the Westfield Leader newspaper details a lawsuit filed by Kimberly Sorrentino and Lawrence Rolnick in US District Court against the Town of Westfield and it's police department. To read Leader story click on the following link: http://www.goleader.com/12jan19/12jan19.pdf

Westfield Town Administrator Jim Gildea had to make yet another request to the Suburban Joint Insurance Fund to determine what legal coverage, if any, the Town will receive. In recent years, the Town sought coverage when Jim Gildea and former Westfield Police Chief Barney Tracy were named in lawsuits, as defendants. One such suit accused both defendants of violating a town employees civil rights.

No stranger to lawsuits, the Town of Westfield will once again, have to rely on a legal defense team to wade through the murky waters of it's own employees actions. It is yet to be determined how many lawyers will be needed due to conflict of interest problems. The number of defendants involved, including multiple police officers and supervisors, will undoubtedly push legal fees into the hundreds of thousands.

Once again, TFoTM asks Mayor Skibitsky......mismanagement? Or, is it just a case of what Mayor Skibitsky has referred to when describing morale issues within the department......a few "bad apples."

Judging by the current state of affairs, the apple picking season will not be yielding a "bumper crop" anytime in the near future.

Jason, when they ask you a question just say "I don't recall" it works wonders. Jusk as Parizeau, Wayman, and your brother. I'm glad I don't work for you with you or supervise you. Another example of the blind leading the bling. Heard Tracy saved your jobn from the toilet when you lied in a police report about one of your many questionable car stops. Wait until the attorneys for that family get a hold of that information. As Kent Dorfman said, oh boy this is gonna be great! If the town were smart they would fire you and cut the liability ASAP!

This is all because the Clark Prosecutor screwed up the case, isn't tha what you said Jason? I wonder if the defense knows that the original reports were re-written, by another officer, to correct all the inconsistencies. I hope the lawyers don't find out about that. Oops, they just did. I am also glad I don't work with you.

Shoot first, ask questions later. The ends justifies the means. You reap what you sow. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but when the people are lawyers like Rolnick and Sorrentino, you end up being the fool. Cant wait for the Internal Affairs ruling on this screw-up.

If Lt. Battiloro is currently re-writing policy, conducting internal affairs investigations, and pursuing department accreditation, what in the hell does Captain Cliff Auchter do? Better yet, if Nicole Stivale pursues department grants, does computer scheduling, and other administrative duties, what in the hell does Captain Wayman do? Schedule our vacation? Can't Vanita do that? Why do we need Captains.